how much does it cost? a million bucks.
Chinese Company’s SoCal Subsidiary Agrees to Pay More Than $1 Million to Resolve Criminal Investigation into Bribe Payments to Jose Huizar and Illegal Contributions to Other Political Figures
LOS ANGELES – A Chinese company’s Arcadia subsidiary, established to redevelop a downtown Los Angeles hotel, has agreed to pay $1,050,000 to resolve an investigation into the company’s conduct with public officials in the City of Los Angeles, including bribery, honest services fraud, and foreign and conduit campaign contributions.
A three-year non-prosecution agreement (NPA) with Jia Yuan USA Co., Inc. is the latest development in the ongoing investigation into a wide-ranging “pay-to-play” scheme in which developers bribed Los Angeles city officials to secure official acts to benefit their real estate projects.
The China-based Shenzhen Hazens established Jia Yuan to acquire, operate and redevelop the Los Angeles Luxe City Center Hotel, which it purchased in 2014 for more than $100 million. Jia Yuan “planned a massive redevelopment that would include retail space, residential units, and hotel rooms, valued at approximately $700 million,” according to a “statement of facts” accompanying the NPA.
The NPA was executed on Monday and announced today by United States Attorney Nick Hanna and FBI Assistant Director in Charge Kristi Koons Johnson.
Under the NPA, Jia Yuan will pay the monetary penalty within two weeks and will continue to cooperate with the FBI’s ongoing public corruption probe. The NPA also requires the cooperation of Jia Yuan’s parent company, as well as other Hazens subsidiaries in the Los Angeles-area.
The NPA details several reasons why the government agreed not to prosecute the company for three years, as long as it refrains from any criminal conduct. Those reasons include the company’s timely acceptance of responsibility for its conduct; remedial measures, including terminating George Chiang as a consultant and improving its compliance program; robust and timely cooperation with the investigation, which included proactively providing the government with records located in China and in the personal possession of its chairman, as well as making the chairman available for an interview while he was located outside the reach of U.S. law enforcement; and agreeing to continue to cooperate with the United States Attorney’s Office and the FBI as the agencies continue to investigate and prosecute cases that may touch upon the company’s conduct.
The statement of facts outlines Jia Yuan’s conduct in relation to former Los Angeles City Councilmember Jose Huizar, who faces a trial in June on a 34-count racketeering indictment, and real estate development consultant George Chiang, who is scheduled to be sentenced in February after pleading guilty earlier this year to participating in a Huizar-led racketeering enterprise.
https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/chinese-company-s-socal-subsidiary-agrees-pay-more-1-million-resolve-criminal